Odion Ighalo training away from Manchester United first team due to coronavirus precautions
Manchester United’s newest signing Odion Ighalo is training away from the first team due to novel coronavirus concerns following his arrival from China.
Ighalo joined United on January 31 from Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua and although the risk posed is minimal — the city is hundreds of kilometers away from Hubei province which is at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak — the club has opted to take precautionary measures.
United also decided against taking Ighalo on its winter break training camp in Spain due to concerns he may have difficulty re-entering the UK.
Current medical guidelines advise people returning to the UK from certain countries, including China, to be quarantined for 14 days.
According the United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ighalo will travel with the squad to London for Monday’s match against Chelsea.
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“Yeah, he is going to travel with us,” Solskjaer told the United website on Tuesday. “We will just see his fitness work this week and I think we will get him sharp. We want to integrate him as quickly as we can because, of course, he is desperate to play for us.”
In the meantime, the Nigeria international has been given an individual training plan by the club to ensure he retains his match fitness.
The Chinese province of Hubei at the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak reported on Thursday the largest single-day rise since the epidemic began.
It announced an additional 242 deaths and 14,840 cases of the virus as of Thursday morning, taking the total number of deaths to more than 1,350 and the number of infections to almost 60,000 people worldwide, mainly in China.
Several sporting events have been affected by the outbreak, including the postponement of the Chinese Grand Prix and the Hong Kong and Singapore Rugby Sevens.
